814 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



0a^ pejiEg. 



As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are 

 my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts 

 than your thoughts.— ISA. 55: 0. 



HEN I first, on bended knee, promis- 

 ed the God of the universe that 1 

 would obey him if he would make 

 known to me that there was a God 

 above who oared for his creatures, I 

 commenced reading the Xew Testament. I 

 have before told you of the wonderful way 

 in which the book of Mattliew seemed to 

 speak to me, personally and individually. 

 Well, after reading the New Testament all 

 through, my wife and I commenced at the 

 beginning of the Bible and read it all. For 

 some years before this I had been skeptical- 

 ly inclined ; had talked with skeptical men, 

 and had read to some extent scientific works 

 that taught, either directly or indirectly, in 

 a way that seemed to ignore the Bible, 

 therefore it was nothing strange that I found 

 many passages in Genesis, Exodus, and 

 Numbers, that not only puzzled me greatly, 

 but tempted me many times to decide that 

 this Old-Testament history must be, a good 

 deal of it, superstition and foolish tradition. 

 I am sorry to say, that I reail the Arabian 

 Nights through several times before I ever 

 read the Bible through one time ; and it 

 therefore seemed to me as though a great 

 many passages in the IMble were either bor- 

 rowed from the Arabian Nights or written 

 after the fashion of it. Again and again I 

 prayed for light in regard to certain pas- 

 sages, and 1 went to my pastor and told him 

 my difficulties and troubles. After such 

 visits I felt a good deal relieved ; but still 

 there were passages that seemed to me to be 

 so unreasonable and so totally absurd that 

 the best I could do was to drop them for the 

 time being, with the faint hope that, at some 

 time in the future, light of some kind might 

 be shed on them. I sa.y /(tint hope, because 

 the hope was very faint indeed. I expected 

 that my skeptical friends would sooner or 

 later bring up these passages and quote them 

 to me, and then make sport of me when I 

 was obliged to confess that I was totally un- 

 able to reconcile them with truth and rea- 

 son. To my surprise, however, I never 

 heard these passages mentioned at all ; and 

 when I expected that Robert (i. Ingersoll 

 would at once make a great lever of these 

 very troublesome passages, I have been sur- 

 prised again and again to see that he grap- 

 pled only with things that are feeble and 

 childlike in comparison. In fact, the very 

 points that he has dwelt on, so far as I am 

 aware, were those that were, many of them, 

 as plain to me as the light of day. One of 

 the passages that at one time seemed as if 

 it were written with letters of fire across the 

 sky, on purpose to warn me, and save me 

 from the gulf that yawned before my unwa- 

 ry feet, was one of the very passages that 

 skeptics have assailed and ridiculed. The 

 passage is this : " If thy right hand offend 

 thee, cut it off and cast it from thee.'' Well, 

 the moment my eye caught that passage, 

 after asking God to tell me what 1 must do, 

 I knew at once. Mind you, I do not say I 



decided at once, for there was no decided 

 about it, for I Ineio it was the answer to my 

 prayer. Before I could take up my cross 

 and follow Christ I must cut off my right- 

 hand sin and cast it away from me. In fact, 

 I had once unconsciously stated by the words 

 of my mouth just wiiere I stood ; that is, 1 

 did once say out loud that J would rather be 

 deprived of my right hand than to give up 

 what 1 knew t must give up before I could 

 be a Christian. It made me shiver a little 

 when I used the expression, and especially 

 when I thought of it afterward, for it told 

 me in plain words just how thoroughly and 

 helplessly I was chained, and in bondage to 

 Satan. 1 do not know but Satan chuckled 

 as he heard me confess myself so totally in 

 his power. We sometimes speak of confess- 

 ing Christ before men. Now, I tell you, 

 friends, there is such a thing as confessing 

 Satan before men ; and I (Irmly believe that 

 bad weak ra(-n do sometimes unconsciously 

 give such testimony. I repeated the pas- 

 sage over and over." In anguish of spirit I 

 prayed (iod to help me to give up my right 

 hand unflinchingly. F hanily need tell you 

 that it was not very long before I rejoiced 

 in freedom fiMm londage, and then I loved 

 to think of and dwell upon the fact that 

 throuyh him I was made cocciiieror and vic- 

 tor over Satan. .Just imagine, then, my 

 feelings when some skeptic quoted those 

 glorious words of Christ Jesus our Savior as 

 a sample of the unreasonable teachings of 

 the Bible. I said inwardly, " May God have 

 mercy on your poor weak understanding, if 

 it seems to you that tliat passage is one of 

 the hard ones !" And it has seemed so al- 

 most right along since I have been standing 

 up freely and boldly for Christ Jesus instead 

 of for Satan. Those who have sought to 

 assail the Holy Scriptures have, by some 

 strange freak that I can not explain, got hold 

 of promises that are precious to many of us. 



Well, dear readers, it is getting to be to- 

 ward twenty years since I first read the Old 

 Testament through. I think the interna- 

 tional Sunday-school lessons have gone over 

 these same passages the third time— may be 

 more— since then : and although these old 

 troubles still remain to a great extent (I 

 mean the difficulty I have in understanding 

 and explaining the teachings of the Old 

 Testament as the woid of God), I rejoice to 

 tell you that they get plainer and plainer 

 every time I go over it ; and during this last 

 time I begin to get such wonderful glimpses 

 of God's majesty and glory, even in that 

 part of the Bible where the children of Isra- 

 el are taken to the promised land, that I 

 have now the courage to tell you of some 

 of those passages that have troubled me so 

 much. I have feared heretofore to mention 

 them, because it might suggest difficulties 

 to some child seeking the way, that he had 

 not met before, but I believe (xod will give 

 me grace to speak them boldly, and I liave 

 faith to believe he will help me to interpret 

 them in a w^ay that will strengthen, instead of 

 harm, every one (>f my friends and readers. 



To commence, then, it always seemed to 

 me very strange and singular that the great 

 God of the universe should condescend to 

 waste his time with such a thankless ancj 



